Jason Day helps stories to visualize success

You have to visualize success on the golf course. Everybody knows that.

Jason Day is one of the best golfers in the world and has a rhythm and routine to what he does week in and week out. It is fair to say that it has been working out for him up until this point.

During the week of the Memorial I heard Jason talk about “stories” relative to his approach in the middle of rounds and I was fascinated what he meant by that. Thanks to the fantastic folks at TruGreen I was able to catch up with Day this week, and his thoughts on “stories” are fascinating.

“Yeah so telling yourself a story is is essentially another way of visualizing. But like what what you really have to do is when you tell yourself a story you always have to ask yourself a question. And when you ask yourself a question the brain will answer you know. And when like if I’m trying to hit a draw 7 iron from 185 yards you ask yourself the question of like ‘What does a draw 7 iron look like?’ You know. And then when you say what does a draw 7 iron look like you can kind of… like I immediately close my eyes to be able to see the shot.”

“And and so it’s once I start seeing the shot then I go ‘Okay I can see the ball coming out I can see it turning hitting its peak hitting its apex turning down landing on that spot that I need it to land kind of ball rolling out.’ And what that is telling you is like it’s it’s seeing the shot before it actually before you actually hit the shot and you’re trying to give yourself a good visual or story to be able to go in there and remake that story happen again.”

“And for us as golfers… because if you go into a shot let’s just say 185 yards and you just go in there and just try and hit it… I mean there’s so many different outcomes. But if you try and go in there and go ‘Okay my story is this I’m gonna go hit a draw 7 iron It’s gonna start at that target it’s gonna peak it’s gonna land on this target and go,‘ and then you see the actual ball flight and go then you go in there and you try and match that I think if you try and match that shot that gives you the best opportunity to be able to hit hit the best possible shot.”

“And then afterwards once you hit the shot then you have to self-assess of like okay was that close to my shot. Did it you know did it start on the correct line? Did it hit the correct height? Did it look like the spin was good? Did it land on my spot? Was there other things that were bugging me if it wasn’t a good shot? And then really… and that way once you do it over and over again and you’re very good at it then you you don’t… it kind of takes away a lot of the emotion of like hitting a bad shot or a good shot.”

• On June 23, Jason is bringing a pitching wedge to the pitcher’s mound. He’ll “pitch” a first-of-its-kind honorary first pitch at a Harford Yard Goats game—swapping a glove for his pitching wedge to lob a golf ball over home plate.
• He’s doing this to show help show that pro-worthy grass belongs everywhere, not just the TOUR. He and TruGreen are teaming up to help people across the country achieve that big-league quality in their own backyards. 

We all do our best to try and emulate the pros when we are out on the course, but I really am going to try and apply this “stories” disposition to my golf game and life well beyond that. It is so much more than just visualizing where you want your shot to wind up, if I may put my own spin on the thought.

When it comes to telling ourself stories we are answering the “why” behind everything, and in the world of golf you can never answer that question too much.

Thanks for the advice, Jason Day.